The Ordinary – Favourites So Far

Unless you’ve been living under a rock (or don’t care for beauty) you’ve probably heard of The Ordinary, so I thought I’d share some of my favourites so far. I’ve always been a lover of skincare, this is partly because I had pretty bad skin as a teenager so spent a lot of time searching for miracle products, and partly because I love beauty but don’t have the skill for make-up – applying skincare requires no talent on my part which is great.

Often in my search for miracle products I had a tendency to go for products that cost a lot, which either left me really disappointed when it didn’t do much for me, or slightly resentful when it worked, as I then felt I had to repurchase something that realistically was out of my price range. Whatever the result it wasn’t making me happy.

I decided at the beginning of this year to overhaul my approach to skincare – I wanted to transition to cruelty free, I wanted to waste less money on things I put on my face, and I wanted better results. For me this has meant a lot of research which has been fun! First I needed a list of cruelty free brands i could buy from and secondly I needed to buy things that would work for my skin – which is dehydrated (condition) and combination (type), as if I was going to spend money I wanted at least a strong possibility it would suit me.

This is where The Ordinary came in. It’s cruelty free, most of the products are less than a tenner and with their stripped back approach of simple packaging and quality ingredients it seemed pretty perfect. I’ve been building up quite a collection over the past eight months or so, and here are some of my favourites.

This is probably my favourite product from The Ordinary I’ve tried so far, which considering how much I love a lot of the others is a big compliment. I fell in love with Hydraluron a few years ago, but due to the price I could only justify it when it was discounted. When I read this was similar but at a fraction of the price I made an order straight away. I put this on before moisturiser and it makes such a difference to my dehydrated skin.

I’ve had some bad experiences with cheaper moisturisers and some I’ve tried just weren’t hydrating enough, so I was a little sceptical with this. It claims to hydrate the skin and deeply nourish with it’s blend of 11 amino acids. This is lovely to apply as I love the creamy texture and I’ve found it’s a great moisturiser, it doesn’t feel greasy and leaves my skin feeling nice and hydrated. For the price it’s excellent and I’m planning to repurchase for the third time.

A few years ago I’d have been horrified if someone told me that in the future I’d put oil onto my face as I’d have assumed it would just give me spots. Fast forward and I wouldn’t be without an oil in my collection as it does great things for my skin in terms of helping the dehydration and dryness. This is nice and light in texture and doesn’t take too long to absorb. I put this on at night and my skin always looks bright and slightly glowing in the morning and it’s great at tackling the annoying dry patches I sometimes get.

I love any product with salicylic acid as it works really well on any spots that decide the appear on my face, so I decided to give this a try. It’s a great affordable spot treatment that within two days gives results. Bargain.

This is designed to exfoliate the skin and make it brighter and more even. I love acid exfoliators in the form of a toner, so I thought I’d give this a whirl. I’ll be honest, it’s very red and legit looks like you are smearing blood onto your face – especially as it dries. This should probably bother me more than it does, but I don’t really mind the colour. It just makes me feel a bit like a vampire having a pamper which I’m into. I use this once a week and my skin looks so much better. Get some and pretend to be a vampire too.